Eiroa Classic Lancero (2022)

At this year’s PCA Convention & Trade Show, CLE Cigar Co. took a relatively balanced approach for its new releases: one new line, one new sampler, a handful of extensions, and a preview of one cigar not for sale. It seems that all that was missing from the list of new items a cigar company could introduce was some accessories.

Two of the Eiroa-branded cigars received 7 x 38 lanceros. Had all of the company’s new items made it to Las Vegas on time to be displayed in the booth, it would have created a great contrast given that elsewhere in the booth Asylum was taking orders for the latest batch of its 9 x 90 April Fools cigar. For those interested, mathematically, you could fit about five and a half of these 38 ring gauge lanceros inside of that 90 ring gauge monstrosity.

The Eiroa Classic is one of eight different blends under the Eiroa name, offered in now six regular production sizes. The blend consists of entirely Honduran tobaccos and is made at The CLE Factory in Danlí, Honduras. This is not the first time this size has been released. In 2016, the company sent 2,000 Eiroa Classic Lanceros to Spring Street Cigars in Tupelo, Miss.

• Cigar Reviewed: Eiroa Classic Lancero
• Country of Origin: Honduras
• Factory: The CLE Factory
• Wrapper: Honduras
• Binder: Honduras
• Filler: Honduras
• Length: 7 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 38
• Vitola: Lancero
• MSRP: $13.60 (Box of 20, $272)
• Release Date: 2016
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

As is the case with most of the Eiroa-branded cigars, the Eiroa Classic Lancero’s wrapper is largely covered by a piece of paper. I notice that this cigar has a rather unique pigtail, a coiled one where the diameter of the coil of the pigtail is about as thin as I imagine any pigtail to be. Once the paper is removed, I’m able to better assess the wrapper and find it to be medium brown with some great texture and visible veins that stand out for the discoloration more than they do the size. The aroma from the wrapper smells of cedar, some damp earthiness—like freshly-rained on mud—and something that reminds me of the smell of copy paper. The cold draw has sweet cedar, some floral flavors and a touch of raisins; a very Cuban-like cold draw flavor-wise. One cigar has some real issues upon cutting, almost like a small explosive went off inside the head of the cigar resulting in numerous tears and unraveling of the wrapper, though the other two cigars are cut without any issue.

The Eiroa Classic Lancero begins with a deep nutty flavor over top of some cedar and a bit of herbal flavors. It’s medium-full and the flavors are very crisp. One cigar—not the one that had issues with wrapper tears—has a rather open draw, but the other two are fine. Nuttiness remains the star of the show through the first third, though secondary notes of creaminess and a Pringles-like potato crisp flavor follow close behind. There’s also a fruity sweetness that varies in intensity both puff-to-puff and cigar-to-cigar. The finish sees the nuttiness give way to a fairly balanced mixture of creaminess, cedar, leather, white pepper and earthiness. Retrohales have leather over floral flavors, chocolate chips, white pepper and red pepper. The finish again turns to creaminess, this time joined by a Ritz cracker-like flavor, black pepper and leather. Flavor is medium-full, body is medium-full and strength is medium-plus. While the burn and smoke production are good on each cigar, the draw on one cigar continues to be too open for both my liking and for what I’d expect from a lancero.

That Pringles-like flavor along with some other potato-like sensations come to the forefront during the second third replacing the once-leading nuttiness. Secondary flavors include earthiness, redwoods and some underlying sweetness, which sometimes tastes a bit like bubble gum. The finish is more aggressive and a bit rougher than before; black pepper leads a milk-like creaminess but oftentimes it’s very difficult to tell the differences between the main flavor and the finish. Sometimes the retrohales are just floral flavors and honey while other times there’s not much sweetness to be had, as I get earthiness, redwoods, herbal flavors, leather and red pepper. Those two different retrohales produce two different finishes. The sweeter retrohales more or less continue into the finish, while the non-sweet retrohales have red pepper, creaminess, white pepper and earthiness. Regardless, I find the finish to be sharper than the retrohale itself. Flavor bumps up to full, body is medium-plus or medium-full depending on the cigar and strength is medium-plus. Touch-ups are needed on two cigars, and on the cigar with the open draw, I have to smoke at a quicker rate to keep the smoke production up to an acceptable level.

While the final third is not overly harsh, it’s got harshness, which is not something I found in the first two thirds of the Eiroa Classic Lancero. As is oftentimes the case with harshness, the harshness comes in tandem with the flavors being less distinct, the latter of which is what I find more disappointing than the harshness. Many of the Eiroa families’ Honduran cigars can feature an incredibly detailed terroir-like earthiness, this cigar has a bit of that but the harshness makes it come across as more of a mixture of minerals and earthiness. Secondary flavors include toastiness, charred meats and creaminess. There’s certainly a contrast between the creaminess and the other flavors, but it lacks the three-pronged contrast that made the first two thirds dynamic. The finish has leather and then a more proper terroir earthiness while touches of white pepper linger all around my mouth. Retrohales have an unsweet floral flavor with some creaminess, as the finish starts the sweetness begins to trickle in, but so does the terroir flavors which completely overwhelm the rest of the sensations. Flavor remains full, body is medium-full and strength is medium-full. Touch-ups are needed to help get the Eiroa Classic Lancero to the finish line without going out completely.

Final Notes

• If you read the part about fitting five and a half lanceros inside a 9 x 90 and wondered if anyone is ever tried stuffing a lancero inside of a large cigar, the answer is sort of. In 2015, Viva Republica produced a cigar called Jailbreak which took a completed 6 x 41 cigar and placed it inside of a 6 x 58 cigar. The results were not good but not as bad as I might have thought.
• The 2016 version of this cigar was called the Eiroa TCB Lancero, which was a reference to Elvis Presley’s use of the phrase, “takin’ care of business.” Each box included an Elvis-branded guitar pick. To my knowledge, the 2022 version of this cigar does not include the guitar pick. Elvis was born in Tupelo, which explains the connection to Spring Street Cigars.
• Brooks Whittington recently reviewed the Eiroa CBT Maduro Lancero, the sister cigar of sorts to the Eiroa Classic Lancero. It seems we each got two cigars that performed much better than the third. I haven’t smoked the Maduro version yet, but Brooks had very high praise for it.
• I never like to say “this is the year of the lancero” or really “this is the year of X,” but I will say there seems to be a lot more of smaller ring gauge cigars coming out this year than normal. This is the third lancero—fourth if you count a redux—I’ve reviewed in the last two weeks. By my count, this is also the ninth new lancero or lonsdale vitola that halfwheel has reviewed in the last month, an incredibly high number compared to what normally happens.
• If you want to smoke a longer Eiroa Classic, the company made a special 7 x 48 release for The Humidour Cigar Shoppe in Maryland. I’ve yet to try it, but it could fill that request and it wouldn’t surprise me if the thicker ring gauge produces a better cigar in a number of different ways.
• I’ve had a lot of issues with cigars getting damaged while cutting. I’m not entirely sure what to make of this given there’s a real lack of consistency between both the issues and oftentimes, like in this case, the inconsistency in issues between the same cigars. There are some common factors: me, my cutter and the humidor the cigars are stored in.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• I found this to be a relatively quick-burning cigar, with final smoking time right around an hour and 40 minutes.
• Site sponsor STOGIES World Class Cigars carries the Eiroa Classic Lancero.